Sunday, February 5, 2012

Chapter 28

On 8/1 Zach and I are packing our backpacks and heading to New Zealand to try some new things. Experience another way of living. Shake up the comfort zone. We haven't decided how long we will be gone, but we anticipate it being somewhere in the 1-2 year range.
We fly into Auckland, which is on the North Island of New Zealand, and are going to start off by working on a farm outside of Auckland. Many farms in New Zealand rely on WWOOFers, or people working in exchange for room and board, so there are many opportunities for this kind of work. This would allow us to go hike, explore, or work part time jobs while traveling from farm to farm down to the fjordland at the southern tip.
We are only planning our first step, which is both intentional and a little nerve wracking. The calendar in my phone is filling up with dinners, races and weddings right up until 8/1. Then it is completely empty for the rest of the year. The point of only planning the first step is that there is only so much we can know from our apartment here in NYC. We aren't going for two weeks to see the sights, but going to slowly, deeply, get to experience different cultures.

No guide book will tell you how much fun it is to bike over the Williamsburg bridge on a sunny day, that it is hard not to people watch while flying down the descent, that the graffiti changes seasonally, or that the drunk bum with the boom box on the south side is harmless, despite looking kind of scary. I will though. And if you visit me, we can go for a run over the bridge and you can experience it for yourself. I'll show you everything I love about my city so that you, too can fall in love with it.That's what I want to find in New Zealand. People's favorite places and favorite things. Except I hope the bridge is made out of vines and suspended between two mountains and maybe instead of a drunk bum, there is a hobbit.

We are toying with the idea of hiking the country top to bottom, camping in fjordland, visiting some of the remote islands of the south pacific, and possibly indonesia or thailand. But all that will come once we are there. Our travels and decisions will be knot together by a few golden threads: live simply and frugally, be open to unexpected opportunities and trying new things andenter into each step with a sense of adventure. And be safe (obvi).

There are tons of logistics to be taken care of before we go (Employers, insurance, apartment, Harriet **let me know if you want the most lovable furball in the world while we are away. will be eternally grateful**, visas, doctors, cell phones, packing), but we are slowly but surely tackling them. Zach and I are both leaving our jobs here in NYC. We will start with manual labor, which will always be an option (thank god for being able bodied!) but may find our way into other types of work.

We have been talking about our plan over the past year and have been put in touch with some great contacts and stumbled up on awesome travel blogs (check out Backpacking Matt). Thanks friends for passing on tips :) We will both be writing about our adventures and challenges abroad on a new blog, but I'll be keeping in touch right here until 8/1.